The ABCs of CFO and ACE
by purplegirl761
Summary: Weird Curly Megaquack's first CFO battle begins a strange series of events.
1. Chapter 1

Figured I must as well start uploading my Toontown stories. Here's the first one.

***************

"How does this stupid thing fit together?"

Weird Curly Megaquack gave a frustrated sigh and kicked her half-assembled Cashbot suit. _Yee-ouch! _Hard metal met her furry toe, and she hopped around in a circle, trying to get the pain to stop.

Her best friend, Little Lefty Bumbercrunch, looked up from her own fully-assembled suit. "You're putting the arms together backwards," she said. "You've got the upper arm pieces on the bottom and the lower arm pieces on top."

"Well, I'm sorry, it's hard to figure out which pieces go where when they all sort of look the same!" Curly shot back, pretending to be offended.

"Especially when we're shaking with excitement," Violet Fiddlefidget added. The little lavender mouse examined the two-and-half green-clad suits laid out on Curly's purple-tied floor. "Or maybe nervousness."

"Try pure FEAR!" Curly yipped, rearranging her suit's left arm.

The three friends laughed, but Curly was only half-kidding. She'd heard that many, many Toons, all much more experienced than her and her friends, had gone sad fighting the CFO before - due to Goon swarms and the CFO's own system of putting safes on his head to use as helmets. In other words, it sounded quite a bit harder than fighting the Sellbots and their big floppy puppy of a boss.

"Aww, come on, Curly!" Lefty slung an arm around Curly's shoulders. "Like you always say, what's the worst that could happen?"

"We could go sad," Violet piped up.

"Big deal," Lefty said with a shrug. "We heal, re-gag, and try again."

"Easy for you to say!" Curly wrung her gloved hands together, fully expecting a puddle of sweat to plop out. "I just got my geyser, and I don't want to lose it!"

"500 points is a lot to get back," Violet nodded.

Lefty grunted and hoisted her suit into her hammerspace. "Well, come on, guys. Time waits for no Toon."

"Yeah, but does the CFO?" Curly quipped.

"He doesn't know we're Toons yet, remember?" Violet giggled. "That's why we did all those hard tasks - to get _these_!" She thumped Curly's suit, causing one of the arms to fall off. "Oops."

Curly let out another sigh. "Looks like the CFO might have to wait a little while longer."

****************

A train whistle pierced the eerie darkness of Cashbot Headquarters. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Curly thought it was about the loneliest sound in the world.

Violet took Curly's hand and squeezed it several times. "We can do this!" she squeaked.

"Yeah, we can," Curly said, straightening her shoulders. "Last one to the gold doors is a counterfeit Cogbuck!"

She and Lefty took off. Violet stood there for a few more seconds, mumbling, "But aren't all Cogbucks counterfeit..." Her voice trailed off as she noticed her teammates way ahead of her. "Hey, wait for me!"

*********

"I am _so _not letting you stand on my head!" Curly hissed to Lefty.

"Well, _somebody's _going to have to stand on _somebody's _head," Lefty whispered back. "These doors are _way_ too big to open."

"Fine," Curly said with a sigh. "Lefty on the bottom, me in the middle, and Violet on the top, because she's the smallest."

Curly climbed carefully onto Lefty's shoulder and then put her feet on her head.

"Ow!" Lefty hissed, whiskers twitching. "Watch it!"

"Sorry," Curly whimpered. "Okay, Vi, come on up!"

Violet hoisted her chubby self up over Lefty and onto Curly's head. _Good thing we_'_re Toons_, Curly thought with a grin. Only Toons could pull off something like this.

On the bottom of the pile, Lefty suddenly giggled.

"What's so funny?" Curly snapped, although she didn't doubt for a moment they looked silly.

"I just realized what we have here. A mouse standing on top of a dog standing on top of a cat."

Curly and Violet slapped their hands over their mouths to muffle their delighted Toon-laughter. That was a surefire way to get the Cogs to notice you.

"Okay, Violet, _push_!" Curly ordered.

"The sign says, 'Pull,'" Violet retorted.

"Okay, then, _pull_!"

Violet took hold of one of the door's huge golden handle and gave it a solid yank. The door creaked open, knocking all three startled Toons to their backsides.

"We did it!" Curly whisper-shouted. "Let's go!"

As Lefty, Violet, and Curly crossed into the doors, they pulled their Cashbot suits from their hammerspace and put them on. Curly sighed with relief. After becoming claustrophobic in her scrawny Telemarketer suit, it felt good to be cute and stubby again.

"Hey, you're just in time!" Curly's bunny friend, Miss Snuffy Whiskerbubble, turned from the elevator doorway, her broad Robber-Baron shoulders nearly knocking over Peaches, a little blue cat in a Money Bags suit.

"Yeah, we were about to start without you," joked King Oscar Rufflepop, a dark-blue dog in a Penny Pincher suit. Root Bear, a brown-bear Number Cruncher, and Cool Fancy Whistlefidget, an bright orange dog in a Tightwad suit, nodded and chuckled.

Curly clumped toward the elevator as fast as she could - which wasn't very fast. No one could run or jump in their Cog suits. They could only walk slowly, steadily, seriously. _Yikes, _Curly had realized after about 1.5 seconds in her Sellbot suit, _it must really be a bummer to be a Cog._

"Oh, yeah, sure," she joked. "You were really going to go in and face the CFO with five people."

"It's been done," Root Bear said.

The eight friends piled onto the elevator, and the doors slid shut in front of them. For a terrible instant, Curly felt as if she'd lost all contact with the outside world.

The elevator rose, making the dogs' ears sway in the breeze. There was silence in the elevator - unusual for this group - someone was almost always talking. But right now, nervousness made sure the only sound was the elevator music going _BUMP ba-DUMP BUMP ba-DUMP._

Or maybe it was Curly's heartbeat.

It was kind of hard to tell.

***********

The doors slid open again about a minute later, though it felt like hours to Curly. A orange monkey in a Loan Shark suit met them.

Curly let out a relieved puff of air. _Mata Hairy. _She'd heard of her. She'd tell them what to do. And besides, anything was better than the CFO greeting them.

"Hello," Mata Hairy screeched. "I'm Mata Hairy. Follow me into the Vault and be _very quiet_. I'm laying a trap for the Cashbot CFO."

"As opposed to the Lawbot CFO," Curly whispered into Violet's big round ear. Violet giggled quietly and took a playful swat at her.

And then, before they could even get off the elevator - he was there. Didn't make any noise, didn't announce he was coming, nothing. If Curly had blinked, she would have missed him. He simply glided into the room, as silently as a cat stalking its prey - a very _large_, scary, evil cat. If the VP had tried to do that, something in the back of Curly's mind chuckled, he would have smashed headfirst into the wall.

But there was no time to giggle over that image now. She looked up - about forty-seven feet up - into the very angry and very-not-crossed eyes of the CFO.

And nearly fainted.

"Drat!" Mata Hairy gave a whisper-shout of her own. "We're too late!"

The CFO's cash-register face twisted as if he were eating roadkill. "Ah-ha!" he cried. "Toons! I thought I smelled something _Toony _in here!"

_Well, you don_'_t smell that great yourself, Buster,_ Curly thought indignantly. _Like one of those cars that need their exhaust pipes fixed. Pee-you! Wait a minute -_

Without anyone telling him, the CFO had figured out instantly that they were Toons. And with a wiggle of his huge fingers, their Cashbots suits were reduced to thin air.

Yeah. She was going to have to get used to that, too.


	2. Chapter 2

"Any more Cogs coming out on your side?" Lefty's voice rose from over the CFO's enormous shoulder.

"Can't tell yet - wait, yeah, here comes another Robber Baron. You guys?" Curly replied.

"A Short Change just came out, so we're doin' okay."

Curly chuckled in spite of herself. Two Robber Barons and a Loan Shark Skelecog faced her group of four. They had been battling for about ten minutes now, and it was hard to tell if they were really getting anywhere. At least no one was in danger of going sad.

Root Bear pulled out her hypnogoggles and placed them on her eyes. The Cogs' eyes became even more glazed over than usual, and they walked straight forward, arms out like robotic zombies.

WHAM! Birthday cakes were thrown, storm clouds rained down on unsuspecting Cog heads, and TNT blew up in the Loan Shark's face. When finally the three had exploded, Curly and her team waited...and waited.

Nothing. No more Cogs.

"We're done!" Root Bear cried, and the four Toons broke into a victory dance.

"And so are we!" Lefty added, leading her own merry band from around the CFO.

Mata Hairy popped her head back into the room. "Oh, good, you're done," she said. "Now you need to attack the CFO himself."

"No way," Violet squeaked, squeezing the life out of Curly's hand. "We have to attack _him_?"

Mata Hairy ran past the CFO, who shot her a if-I-was-smaller-and-able-to-move-more-easily-you-would-be-toast look. She ran over to what looked like a video game console, and started moving the joystick. A large red magnet started swinging crazily from a rope on the other end.

Mata Hairy nattered on about what to do, but Curly's mind wandered. She had already heard many times about how to crane, and she wasn't planning to crane anyway. Right now, she was too nervous to listen.

At that exact moment, the CFO's undercarriage opened and an orange Goon - bigger than any Curly had ever seen - skittered out, his light-eye focused squarely on Mata. Mata yelped, "Gotta run!" and ran out of the room as fast as her short legs could carry her.

"No!" Curly cried without thinking about it. "Come back!"

Snuffy giggled and put a hand on Curly's shoulder. "Don't worry," she said. "We'll be just fine."

With that, Snuffy took off to a corner and stood on a crane. She twitched the joystick back and forth, the magnet swaying around. "I'm getting warmed up," she explained, noticing Curly's questioning look.

The CFO opened his undercarriage again, and Curly resisted the urge to try to slam a pie in. This wasn't the VP fight, after all. A tiny Goon, barely half Curly's size with a light about the width of a quarter, walked out and began to wander cluelessly around the room.

Lefty darted her eyes uneasily over to Curly. Curly loved anything small, and saw cuteness in places no one else did. "Curly," she warned. "Don't-"

Too late. Curly's instincts took over. "It's adorable!" she cried, rushing over to stomp the tiny thing. Unfortunately, she mistimed her jump.

A foghorn-type noise sounded, and Curly felt her smile droop a little. Rats. She'd forgotten about the light, and now she was missing five laff points.

Curly straightened her shoulders and took a deep breath. Okay. It was time to get down to serious business, meaning no matter how cute the Goons were, she had to stomp them - for the good of the team.

Whap! The baby Goon curled up into a ball, and an ice-cream cone dropped from its yellow helmet. Curly snatched it up, feeling nice and refreshed. There!

A magnet extended down, seemingly from the ceiling, and picked up the still-stunned Goon. As Curly watched, fascinated, it let go, slamming the Goon into the CFO's head. The Goon exploded immediately, and the CFO squatted down, shaking his head in annoyance.

More Goons started leaking out then, about the size of the ones Curly had seen in the Factory and Mints. She quickly went to work stomping.

A few minutes later, a loud crashing noise bounced off the vault walls and echoed in Curly's sensitive dog ears. The CFO had sat all the way down, eyes only half-open, but fighting to still look like the poster boy for toughness. It was somehow sad.

"What did _that_ to him?" Curly yelped, as more crashing noises sounded.

"Safe," Peaches responded from a crane, mousing her magnet over to pick up another. Just as she let it go, though, the CFO sat back up, face contorted with rage.

WHAM! The safe landed on his head and covered his face. Only his eyes glared out at them now, though Curly was one-hundred-percent sure he was smirking beneath the helmet.

"Rats!" Peaches slammed her head down onto her crane control panel. "I'm so sorry, guys."

"Not a big deal," Snuffy replied, picking up another safe with her own crane. "Could have happened to anyone."

Curly looked up from stomping orange Goons just in time to see the CFO whip around, narrowing his eyes as he flung gears straight at Snuffy. She had to get in a shot to get that safe off his head!

Before she could even think about it, Curly jumped into the air and hurled herself between the gears and Snuffy. She felt hard metal thump her chest and stomach, and her mouth twitched downward. Her laff meter had fallen a good 10 points.

_The VP's gears only take off 3 points, _Curly thought vaguely. _What's up with that?_

"Oh, and by the way," she said out loud, looking way up at the CFO's face. "You look really dumb with that helmet on."

That did it. The CFO sat down and swiped the side of her face with a huge metal hand. A noise like a metallic mountain lion sounded in Curly's ears, and she felt her laff meter fall even more. But, as she'd hoped, she had distracted him long enough for Snuffy to get the helmet off.

"Good teamwork!" Lefty hollered from the other side of the room, bonking several Goons on the head at once.

The CFO's dark eyes narrowed, and he growled something under his breath. Curly couldn't make it out, and she decided that was probably for the best.

Suddenly, the doors of the undercarriage seemed to explode with Goons, all easily twice the size of the tallest Toon, all red-hatted, all practically jogging. The first thing one of them did was clomp over to Snuffy and knock her right off the crane with its light-beam. Snuffy's laff meter fell dramatically, and her lower lip quivered.

"No!" Curly cried. The CFO's smirk widened. _Face it, Toons, _it said without words. _You can't stop me. _

"Oh, yes, we can," Curly muttered under her breath. Gritting her teeth so hard her ears began to ring, she ran over and stomped the red Goon with all her might. A snowflake fell out of its helmet, and Snuffy happily picked it up and let it restore her lost Laff points.

"Thanks, Curly," she said, and quickly jumped back on the crane.

Several minutes that felt like hours went by, and the glowing circle of the CFO's chest changed from orange to red. A few more safe hits and it began to blink - slowly but surely. Curly felt her smile widening. That blink always meant victory was near.

"He's got another helmet!" Oscar cried in panic.

"No problem," Violet replied. "I think I've finally gotten the hang of this." She scooped up a safe on her magnet and swung it toward the CFO's head. The first safe was knocked off, and both safes clattered to the ground, shaking Curly right off her feet.

"Now!" Peaches cried, and all four craners let loose with a barrage of stunned Goons on the CFO's head. When they had stopped, he held out his arms like he was Moses trying to part the Red Sea.

"That's it," he snarled, his way-deep voice vibrating through the room and nearly knocking Curly back to the ground. "I've had enough of these pesky Toons!"

He did that jungle-cat-glide toward the door, stopping only to shoot only last victorious glare over his shoulder. Clearly he thought _he _was winning. All Curly could think was that she was going to have to get used to staring at the back of a head - the VP didn't have one, being (literally) two-faced and all.

"I've got a train to catch!" the CFO cackled, and within seconds was out the door. Curly was about to dust her hands off proudly when she heard a train whistle - _the loneliest sound in the world_ - very close.

Curly walked over to the door to check it out, and was nearly blinded as a train whizzed past her, whipping her ears in the breeze. The whistle grew louder and louder, and then stopped entirely as worse noises replaced it.

A collision.

Something large hitting the ground.

Another collision.

And an explosion.

Not the little-explosion of a Cog blowing up, or even the totally-awesome sound made when four bit the dust at once. This was the sound of TNT being used, of a Goon being hit with a stomper - of something huge being completely obliterated.

Something huge that, unlike the rest of the Cogs, could think and feel and almost be - well, human, for lack of a better term.

A gear the size of Curly's whole _head _went flying past the doorway, smoke billowing from somewhere out of her sight. And as her teammates laughed and cheered and danced and clapped each other on the back, congratulating each other, all Curly could do was slap her hand over her mouth in horror.

_Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh - we killed him!_

Mata Hairy reappeared, her face streaked with grease and her skirt ripped slightly. But she was beaming ear to ear, as were all of Curly's friends. "Great work!" Mata cried. "You are all an asset to the Resistance!"

Ordinarily, that would have made Curly jump up and down and squeal, and even now it opened up a tiny, warm place inside of her. But one glance at the still-smoking doorway and it was swallowed up by a chill colder than the Brrgh.

"To thank you, here is a Unite that you can use in battle," Mata continued. "When you say it, everyone around you will have their Toon-Up gags restocked. But you can only use it once, so choose that time carefully!"

The Toons nodded and thanked her. Mata threw down her hole and disappeared, and Lefty nudged Curly in the ribs. "Let's get going and tell everyone!" she cried. Her green eyes were dancing; she was apparently as excited as Curly had been until a minute ago.

"You go ahead," Curly muttered. "I wanted to look around some more - maybe I can find something to report back to Flippy."

Lefty shrugged. "Suit yourself," she said. "Come on, guys."

Her friends teleported out, and Curly ran out of the main vault, heart pounding harder with every step she took. When she got to the front of the train, however, her heart simply stopped completely.

She could see the CFO's face laying in front of the train, slack as if he had simply dropped off to sleep. And she could see his hands peeking out from under the tracks - not even twitching the way Cogs' fingers did when you dropped a safe or something on them. They were still - too still.

When she happened to sneak a glance behind the train, though, there was nothing recognizable there. Nothing but a twisted mass of gears.

Curly swallowed hard. _What the heck do I do?_ she wondered. She had never felt more alone in her life.

She sat there on her heels for a long, agonizing moment, rocking back and forth and silently contemplating what a Cog's "life" was worth anyway. An almost-human one surely shouldn't just be left to be blown up.

Suddenly, an idea sprang into her head. Curly snatched up one of the Cogbucks that had fallen out of the CFO's pocket - a billion-dollar bill - and stuffed it into her own. She started to run off, but she turned back and took one more hard swallow.

"Please don't be dead," she whispered to the relaxed-with-unconsciousness face.

And then she turned and ran off to the nearest Mint entrance.

*********

Author's note: I actually did yell for Mata Hairy to "Come back!" my first CFO run. I'd read several guides on what to do, but in the heat of the moment, I panicked. ;)


	3. Chapter 3

Here's chapter three!

***************

Curly crouched in a hole, heart pounding in her ears, small purple legs ready to spring. WHAM! The giant stomper came down on the hole she was in.

Now! Curly darted out from her hole and out onto the steps, leaving the stomper behind. She ignored the Toon-up barrels and tore down the hall, nearly running into the wall as she skidded to turn the corner.

She stood there for a moment, catching her breath, and then walked into the next room. Perfect. Some Skelecogs had their backs to her, slapping pieces of paper onto a machine - making Cogbucks, naturally.

Curly jumped and down and waved her arms. "Yoo-hoo, cogs!" she cried even as she questioned her own sanity. "Over here!"

Their heads whipped around, and their eyes narrowed upon spotting her. Immediately, the four of them arranged themselves into a battle position and waited for her.

Curly sighed with nearly all the air left in her. They weren't going to come to her. Time for Plan B.

She reached into the pocket of her purple skirt and removed the billion dollar bill. Four pairs of Cog eyes nearly bulged from their not-yet-there sockets.

Curly waved the thing around in the air, watching their eyes dart back and forth, following its path. "You want it?" she taunted.

They crouched down, ready to spring.

"Then come and get it!" she cried, and turned and bolted down the hall as fast as she could.

She could hear propellers being revved behind her, and she burst out of the mint entrance just in time. Skelecogs rarely journeyed outside out the mint, but the desire to get that money had blinded them to everything else.

Curly led them across the train tracks and up the stairs to the front of the CFO's lobby. She yanked open the door and, hearing the propellers headed her way, ran inside to the scene of the wreck. It made her suck in her breath all over again.

By now, the Skelecogs had landed in front of her, cornered her, eyes gleaming with greed.

_I sure hope this works. _

Using her best aim, Curly flung the bill toward the scene of the wreck. The Skelecogs began knocking each other out of the way to get to it - and then the one in the front stopped abruptly, making the others run into him.

Their hands flew to their mouths, and Curly saw a look of sheer horror appear in their usually-glazed-over eyes. The one in the lead crouched down on his heels and examined the CFO's face. The other three simply stared with their eyebrows scrunched up, and Curly realized with a start they were as scared as she was.

Probably more. That was their _leader_ lying there squished under a train.

One of them walked over to an intercom-looking system and pushed a button. "Attention, all repair Cogs. Please report to the main vault at once. We repeat, report to the main vault at once. This is an emergency!"

It was the first time Curly had ever heard even a hint of emotion in a Cog's voice. She tugged on one of the Skelecogs' arms without even thinking about it. Some part of her brain wondered why she hadn't just lost Laff points.

"Do you think you can fix him?" she whispered, as if talking aloud would break the moment.

The Skelecog looked at her as if he had just realized she was a Toon. Curly winced, waiting for the iron grip on her arm, to be dragged away and locked up somewhere - maybe to be given to the VP to dangle in that cage about the launchpad -

But the Skelecog merely waved his bony hand and then turned away. The message was clear: _Run along, Toon. We don't have time to do anything to you now._

Curly reached into her pocket, pulled out the black hole marked "Home," and teleported away.

***************

The next day, Curly and Lefty were fishing on Barnacle Boulevard in Donald's Dock. The silence - broken only by the occasional _plop _of a line being cast and by Curly's mumblings over not having caught that Scurvy Cutthroat Trout yet - made yesterday's excitement seem like some faraway dream.

Maybe it was, Curly mused. Maybe nothing had happened at all.

That thought was interrupted before it could even begin to grow, however, by Lefty. "Zari intercepted a Cashbot memo today," she said.

Curly's hand went slack, and her steel rod fell right into the pond. "What - what did it say?" she choked out.

Lefty cut a suspicious glance over at her friend, but she said, "It said that Cashbot activity will be greatly decreased for the next week or so - Cogbuck printing is gonna go down big-time because they will be busy fixing the CFO."

Curly sighed with relief and rescued her rod from the bottom of the pond, plucking a Star Fish off and plunking it into her bucket. Lefty's eyes narrowed at her. "It says," she continued, "that they found the CFO after he was hit by a train because some Toon lured them there with a billion-dollar bill." She twisted up her mouth. "Interesting, huh?"

Curly's mouth went so dry she couldn't respond. She could barely even nod. Suddenly, Lefty grabbed her hand and pulled her off the docks into a little curved-in corner out of the eyes of even Fisherman Barney. "That was you, wasn't it?"

Curly felt heat rising to her cheeks. "What gives you that idea?" she sputtered.

Lefty wagged her head impatiently. "Because I know you, Weird Curly Megaquack. You can't stand to see anything suffer." She leaned in so close Curly could smell the jellybeans on her breath. "Why did you do that?"

Curly wanted to study her toes and mumble that she didn't know. But she mustered up all the courage she had, squared her shoulders, and said in as strong a voice as she could manage, "Because it wouldn't be right to just leave him there to die. He - he was sort of a person. He could think and he could feel - not like the other Cogs, y'know?"

To her surprise, Lefty's face broke into a soft smile. "That's what I thought you'd say," she sighed, grabbing Curly and giving her a head noogie. "You are one heck of a Toon, you know that? Besides, halting their production for a week or so is about all we were really expecting, anyway."

Curly giggled and swatted at Lefty and tried to pull away, but another thought struck her. "Do they think they're gonna be able to fix him?"

Lefty's smile softened even more. "Yeah."

Curly let out a howl and jumped straight up into the air, pumping her fist. As Lefty watched in amusement, she twirled out of the fishing crevice, yelling "Yee-hah!"

She spun around and around, not even realizing she had twirled right into the street - until she hit something hard and cold and heard a metallic voice ringing in her ears.

Curly looked up into the magnified-by-glasses eyes of a Flunky.

******

"Aww, rats," Lefty said from the sidewalk. "I hate it when that happens."

Curly couldn't answer. She could only stare at the bug-eyed Flunky, who stared back like he'd never seen a Toon before in his life.

"Come on, Curly," Lefty hollered. "Just blow it up and we'll get back to our day."

Curly's eyes shifted to the name tag over the Flunky's bald head. Only a Level 2. Easy as pie - literally.

She pulled out her fruit pie slice - her _organic_fruit pie slice - and aimed. It hit the Flunky square in his chest, and he brought his hands up over his face, as if that would do any good.

Curly reached for her glass of water and leaned in to examine the red health meter on the Flunky's chest. Suddenly it seemed closer. Then farther away. Then closer. Then farther.

Curly gasped as she realized the Flunky's chest was moving in and out, slowly but surely.

"What's wrong, Curly?" She felt Lefty at her side, plucking at her sleeve.

"It - it's breathing."

She could picture Lefty rolling her eyes. "It can't breathe. It's a robot."

"I know it can't!" Curly snapped. "But it's doing it anyway!"

"Curly," Lefty's voice was taking on a warning tone, "you have to beat this thing. You know that."

She did. That was why she took a big gulp from her glass of water and spit right in his face.

The Flunky spun around, gears flying everyone, and gave Curly a what-did-I-ever-do-to-you? look right before blowing up.

Curly just stood there for what felt like a long time. Lefty gave her a pat on the back, but she shrugged it off, leaned over, and picked up a gear. It fit in the palm of her hand, smooth and shiny. She held it up to her eye for a moment and squinted through the hole in the middle. She pictured the terror in the Flunky's eyes right before he exploded.

And then something in her snapped.

Curly turned her gag bag upside down and shook out her gags. "Here," she said to Lefty's astonished face. "Hold these."

With that, she went to work, scrambling around, gathering up all the gears and - ee-yikes! - body parts, and shoving them into her gag bag. Lefty watched her, mouth hanging open. "Have you finally lost your mind?" she asked.

"Maybe," Curly answered shortly. She threw her hand up into the air and bellowed, "Taxi!"

Instantly, a taxi screeched its tires up next to her. Curly flung herself into the backseat and shoved some jellybeans in the driver's hand. "Where to?" P.J. from the Donald's Dreamland taxi service asked.

"To Duckburg. Gyro Gearloose's house." Curly swallowed hard. "And step on it."


	4. Chapter 4

Here's the end - of _this _story. It's a trilogy, so this is really just the beginning. *dramatic music*

*************

"....And that's the story." Curly leaned her elbows on Gyro Gearloose's worktable.

Gyro wiped his hands on a grease rag and parked a hand on his hip in interest. "So, besides rebuilding him, what do you think I can do?"

"What I _know _you can do, Gyro," Curly corrected. "You can reprogram him, make him nice - you know, not all evil and fun-hating. You can give him a personality and stuff." She locked eyes with the inventor. "After all, you've been looking for a peaceful solution all this time. Maybe this is part of it."

Gyro nodded his reddish head slowly. "I suppose you have a point," he said with a smile. He took the gag bag of gears and stuff from Curly's hands. "Come back tomorrow and I'll see what I can do."

Curly flung her arms around Gyro's neck quickly. "Thanks, Gyro!" she yipped. "You're the best!"

And she darted off toward home.

******

The next day, Curly, Lefty, and Violet went over to Gyro's house. Gyro greeted them, holding a wrench in one hand and a remote in the other, face beaming. The Flunky stood in the corner, eyes closed.

Curly squealed right out loud. "You fixed him!"

Violet gave a squeal of her own. "Is he really going to be a good guy now?"

Gyro smiled. "Well, there's only way to find out." He wandered over to the Flunky and held up the remote. He started to push a large red button, then stopped. "Oh, there's one other thing I thought you three should know. He's immune to gags - "

"WHAT?" Lefty cut him off. "Okay, now I know you're all insane."

"- until he uses a Cog attack," Gyro finished. "That way, it's impossible for the Toons to strike first."

Violet nodded slowly. "That make sense."

"I suppose," Lefty grudgingly admitted.

Gyro did push the button then, and Curly felt her whole body tense up. She could see the fur bristling on the back of Lefty's neck, and Violet buried her face in Curly's shoulder.

The Flunky's big eyes fluttered open, focusing in on the foursome. He gave a small smile. Then, with a series of short, jerky movements, he raised his arm and waved timidly. Curly felt her heart melt.

Gyro wore a grin of triumph. "Do you know who you are?" he asked the Flunky.

The Flunky nodded his shiny bald head. "Yes," he said a serious, slightly-squeaky-but-still-metallic voice. "I am a Cog. A _good _Cog. And these Toons over here -" He waved his hand in their direction. "They are - my friends?"

Gyro smiled crinkles around his eyes. "Absolutely."

Curly watched this play out, feeling about ready to explode from excitement. She bounded over to the Flunky and shook his hand. "Hi," she said, feeling her own grin nearly squinting her eyes shut. "I'm Weird Curly Megaquack."

The Flunky's smile grew wide. "Pleased to meet you. I am Flunky 11489-7B."

Curly blinked. "That is FAR too big a name for a cute little thing like you."

Violet wrinkled her nose. "I thought Cogs had smaller names than that."

The Flunky shrugged clumsily. "Our naming system has been kind of...disorganized ever since the Vice-President knocked over the file cabinet and scattered our records all over Sellbot Headquarters."

Curly felt a smile twitch across her lips. Good ol' VP.

"So - you need a new name," Violet said, nodding as if everything were all worked out. "How about the Goodbot?"

The Flunky shook his head.

"Flunky?"

Another shake.

"Nice Doodle?" Curly joked.

The Flunky gave her a look of utter bewilderment - which was pretty much a Flunky's default expression, anyway.

Gyro ignored them all. "If we announce this to everyone, we can be acquiring Cog excellence very soon..."

"I've got it!" Lefty broke in. Her smile was so wide, Curly could see an idea gleaming behind it. "Gyro, what did you say we'd be doing?"

"Acquiring Cog excellence?" Gyro repeated.

Lefty bobbed her head, an I've-got-it-all-figured-out look on her face. "It can be an acronym. Acquiring Cog Excellence. His name can be ACE."

The Flunky's eyes grew bigger than ever, and he slowly began to nod, too. "I like it," he announced to the room in general. "Can it be my name?"

"Absolutely!" Curly howled. She stuck out a paw and initiated another handshake. "Hiya, ACE."

"So where is he going to stay?" Lefty asked. "We can't just take him to Toontown and say, 'Hi, this is really a good Cog. Please don't blow him up!'"

"He'll stay with me for the time being," Gyro mused. He glanced down at ACE. "I don't suppose you'd rather go back and live with the CEO."

ACE shook his head. "Nuh-uh. He yells too much."

"He's adorable!" Violet whispered to Curly. "ACE, I mean."

"I'm glad you didn't mean the CEO," Curly chuckled.

Wagtail, Curly's Doodle, bounded into the room then, yipping excitedly. Curly bent down to scratch her tummy. "Hey, girl," she said softly. "Did you follow me here?"

Wagtail wagged her skinny little tail, and then her eyes shifted. Her face went up into the air, and she sniffed several times. The fur stood up on her back and she growled low in her throat. Her face was pointed right at ACE.

ACE whimpered and grabbed Gyro's arm.

"Easy there, Wagtail," Curly cried, grabbing her Doodle in her arms. "He's a friend. He's a good Cog. He won't hurt you - or me."

Wagtail turned a confused face up to her owner, but she left her fur back down and stopped growling. Curly looked up to see ACE standing beside her. "Sorry about that," she said. "Instincts, ya know?"

ACE nodded until she thought his head would roll off. "Yes," he said. He looked down at the now-curious Wagtail, who was sniffing his shoes. "Can - can I pet him?"

"It's a girl," Curly replied. "And, sure you can. Just let her smell your hand first."

ACE nodded again and reached his pudgy hand down, dangling it in Wagtail's face. Wagtail gave it a quick sniff and then slurped it. ACE giggled. The sound did Curly's heart good.

"You know, ACE," she said quietly as he awkwardly patted Wagtail on the head. "I think this could be the start of a beautiful friendship."


End file.
